C|NET Compares Various Headphone Styles

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://reviews.cnet.com/4521-6531_7-5120625-2.html?tag=subnav' target='_blank'>http://reviews.cnet.com/4521-6531_7-5120625-2.html?tag=subnav</a><br /><br /></div>C|Net has rounded up a very nice list of top quality headphones for multimedia enthusiasts. Even if you aren't really in the market for new headphones, it's still interesting nonetheless to look at the wide variety of choices among headphone form factors and classes. Personally, I strongly dislike earbuds. I haven't found one yet that actually delivers good audio quality. Full sized are more my style. I use a pair of Sony MDR-G52 headphones, which offer <b>very</b> good quality.<br /><br />Do you have a preference? Have you come across a set of headphones you deem as <i>must have</i>. Post your thoughts in forum. :)

[michael]

Anything would be better than the stock iPod earbuds. I'm tempted with the Sony noise-cancelling earbuds, but the review isn't that wonderful. A full sive set of headphones would be great, but they're just too bulky for me to carry around. Apple's new iPod earbuds look promising, hopefully they'll be more comfortable than the basic ones.

[Kent Pribbernow]

Anything would be better than the stock iPod earbuds.

God yes! They are awful. Would it have killed Apple to include better quality ear buds? :roll:

Frankly I haven't been very impressed with any earbud I have sampled. They just don't offer the same fidelity as full sized headphones.

[Suhit Gupta]

God yes! They are awful. Would it have killed Apple to include better quality ear buds? :roll:
But I don't think the problem is limited to Apple. I don't quite understand why any of these PMP companies are unable to include a good set of headphones. I mean, we pay an arm-n-a-leg for these devices, don't we deserve a good set of headphones? :evil:

Suhit

[Janak Parekh]

God yes! They are awful. Would it have killed Apple to include better quality ear buds? :roll:
Indeed. I listened to them for five minutes and ditched 'em and went back to my 4-year-old Sony earbuds. They're not perfect, but they take a beating and they're surprisingly decent for a non-in-ear solution.

That said, Suhit's correct. I tried his iRiver earbuds and they're quite a bit worse than the iPods' -- and they're lousy in the ear. I think what happens is that most people always use the bundled earbuds, and Apple included slightly better bundled earbuds than usual...

Oh, and one last rant while I'm at it. Why are all the manufacturers ditching the good non-in-ear-style earbuds? I don't want in-ear, darn it! I want to be able to hear outside sounds. I recently bought a pair of Sennheiser MX500s, and they're okay, but they distort bass at high volumes (which I need on mass transit). So I'm stuck with these 4-year-old Sonys, and I'm afraid they're going to break one day. 8O If someone has a recommendation for such an earbud, I'm all ears. :)

--janak

[Gary Sheynkman]

The sony in-ears have a very nice low end...I want to try out the Shure and Etymotic phones that they rate oh so highly